TENNIS AO2015 – Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova will square off against tomorrow in a eagerly-awaited Australian Open final. It will be the first time since Justine Henin beat her compatriot Kim Cljisters in a all-Belgian clash in 2004 that both the top two players will meet in the Australian Open final. This is the fourth Grand Slam final between the World Number 1 and Number 2 players since 2004. Serena and Maria clashed in the 2013 Roland Garros when they were ranked Number 1 and Number 2. The other Grand Slam final between the top two players was played between Serena Williams and Vika Azarenka at the 2013 US Open. Diego Sampaolo
AO2015: Interviews, Results, Order of Play, Draws
Serena and Maria will meet for the 19th time in their careers. Serena leads 16-2 in their previous matches. Maria has not beat her US rival since 2004 when the then-17 year-old Russian player scored her two only wins in the Wimbledon final and in the WTA Championships Final in Los Angeles. Since then Serena has won their last 15 clashes, 12 of them in straight set. The last time they met Serena beat Maria 6-4 6-3 in the Miami semifinal.
Serena will play her sixth Australian Open singles final and the first since 2010 with a winning record of 5-0.
“I think her power and aggressiveness has always made me a little bit too aggressive, maybe going for a little bit more than I had to. She is great at making players hit that shot that you don’t necessarily have to go for, maybe going for a little too much, going for the line. It’s been a difficult match-up for me but I am a competitor. I will go out and I will do everything I can to change that result around”, said Sharapova explain the reason why Serena is such a tough rival to beat.
Serena beat Garbine Muguruza in the Round of 16, last year’s Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova in the quarter final, US teenager Madison Keys in the semifinal to qualify for the final. Serena recovered from a slow start when she went down a break in the opening set of the first set. Keys, who was playing her first Grand Slam semifinal, held serve for 2-0 before pulling away to 3-1. Williams broke back before winning the tie-break after 45 minutes. Williams pulled away to a 5-1 lead but Keys fended off seven match points and held her serve for 2-5. The US teenager saved the eighth match point but Williams hit her 13th ace of the match on the ninth match point to close out the match with 7-6 6-2.
Maria won the all-Russian semifinal against her compatriot Ekaterina Makarova, who was playing her second consecutive Grand Slam semifinal after the US Open last September. Maria raced to 3-0 and 4-1 leads but Ekaterina broke back to claw her way into the match for 4-3. Maria reeled off six consecutive games to pull away to 6-3 4-0 in the second set. Both players held their serve until the end before Sharapova clinched the win with 6-3 6-2 to qualify for her 10th Grand Slam final. With her semifinal Makarova will return to the top-10 after the Australian Open (she is projected at Number 9).
In the previous rounds Sharapova beat Zarina Diyas in the Round of 32, Peng Shuai in the Round of 16 and Eugenie Bouchard in the quarter final. She has a record of 5-4 in her previous Major finals. Only Serena and Venus Williams achieved 10 or more Grand Slam finals.
The two big stars of the circuit are the only two active players who achieved the Career Grand Slam. The other four players who managed to win all the four Majors in their careers were Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf.
If Serena wins, she will become the second best player in history with 19 Grand Slam titles behind Steffi Graf who won 22 Majors. Before tomorrow’s final Serena is tied in second place with 18 wins alongside Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. Maria is currently tied in 11th place with Martina Hingis
Serena is bidding to win the only Grand Slam title she has not clinched since her lay-off due to injury problems between July 2010 and June 2011 Maria is bidding to win her sixth Grand Slam after Wimbledon 2004, the US Open in 2006, the Australian Open in 2008 and the Roland Garros twice in 2012 and 2014.
Serena has won 21 of her last 22 matches against top-10 players. Since the start of the 2014 US Open final she lost only against a top 10 Simona Halep in the round robin of the 2014 WTA Championships in Singapore.
Serena is the first US player to reach the Australian Open since she clinched her fifth title in 2010. Maria was the last Russian player to play the final at the Australian Open in 2012 when she finished runner-up-
Williams lifted five Australian Open singles titles in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2010, the most in the Open Era ahead of Margaret Court, who won four Australian Open titles in the Open Era in 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1973.
Maria will be looking to beat a World Number 1 player for the eighth time in her career after defeating Lindsay Davenport (twice), Amelie Mauresmo, Justine Henin, Caroline Wozniacki and Vika Azarenka twice.
Maria will be looking to win her first Grand Slam title from match point down. She had to fend off two match points in the second round against World Number 150 Alexandra Panova. Only four players managed to win a Major title after saving match points during the tournament. They were Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati, Serena Williams twice and Li Na last year.
Both Sharapova and Williams are unbeaten on tour so far in 2015. Maria beat Ana Ivanovic in the Brisbane final and enters the final with a 11-0 record. Serena warmed up for the Australian Open with exhibition matches at the Hopman Cup where she lost against Eugenie Bouchard and Agnieszka Radwanska but boasts a 6-0 record at the Australian Open.
Williams is looking to win her 100th career win against top-5 players. Sharapova has a 7-13 record against world number 1 players.
Sharapova has won her last five tour finals and suffered her last defeat in the final of the 2013 Roland Garros. Williams has won her last ten finals and lost her last final in Cincinnati in 2013. Williams becomes the oldest player to reach the women’s singles final at the Australian Open in the Open Era. Chris Evert held the previous record when she reached the final in 1988 losing to Steffi Graf.
Serena will be looking to win the US Open and the Australian Open back-to-back for the third time after 2003 and 2009. Only Steffi Graf achieved the feat to win the two tournaments back-to-back three times in 1989, 1990 and 1994.
